Automated Speed Enforcement- The Unconstitutional Expansion of the Surveillance State
Robot police- Sci Fi movie or real life in Pennsylvania?
If you’re like myself, you may have recently got a bit of unwanted mail from PennDOT telling you “you have a ticket.” I have no doubt that the average person receiving one of these in the mail is shocked and furious. Its likely you don’t even know what happened. Worse still, you open the letter to find pictures taken of your car travelling “over the speed limit” and a section of law telling you that the only way to defend against this ticket is to claim someone stole your car, you don’t own the car, or there’s a problem with PennDOT’s traffic enforcement technology.
If you’re anything like me you might be rather alarmed that the law has been written to limit you to only 3 possible defenses. What if they don’t apply to you? What if there was a good reason for you to be speeding? What if it wasn’t even you speeding in the car, but rather a family member or friend? And aside from all of this, since when do we defend ourselves against robot police where one of the defenses is to try and challenge the functionality of this technology, something few of us in the public understand.
When I recently was cited by one of our new automated speed enforcement machines I was annoyed (who likes to get a speeding ticket). Just like I’d advise anyone, there is really never a reason to not fight a traffic ticket. As I read through the automated speed enforcement statute to prepare my defense, I quickly learned that the government doesn’t want you and I challenging their robot policeman. They wrote the law to make sure few use-able defenses can be used to fight back against this expansion of the ever-larger surveillance apparatus in this county.
Despite all that, hope is not lost. If you’ve been ticketed by the automated speed enforcement system, call me. There are a lot of problems with this law and its so new that no one has been able to challenge it. The fact is, the robot police and the law that set them up are unconstitutional for a host of reasons including a violation of our due process rights, and by setting up PennDOT as a state wide police system, despite the fact that they are an administrative agency.
So, what do you do when the robot police come for you? My advice is to call me ASAP so we can work together to limit the spread of the surveillance state. Pietropaolo Law can be reached at 412 407 3880 by call and text.
Be safe, be smart, and be prepared,
Domenic Pietropaolo, Esq.
